Week in the Life of a Farmer

A week full of workin' on junk and preparing for Spring.

Welcome friends! It's finally time to start getting back into the field. For us, Spring looks like lots of cleaning up and cleaning out, making the necessary repairs, spraying and applying fertilizer to wheat and fallow fields. This week has been nothing but BUSY at Peek Family Farms.

Every day I ask Brady how his day went and what they got accomplished on the farm. His reply is always the same this time of year.

“Workin' on junk.”

Working on junk means making repairs, servicing, and improving the planter, sprayer, irrigation system, and tractors. Just this week, we have sprayed 500 acres of burndown and 250 acres of fertilizer in three days. Burndown is a term we use when applying herbicides to kill all the weeds in a field. We apply burndown before we plant corn, soybeans, and cotton to ensure that there is nothing else competing for the water, nutrients, and sunlight other than our crops.

Planting is the main event for Spring. The planter is the center of attention right now as we are getting everything serviced and set up just right. Brady always says that the planter is the most important piece of equipment because if we don't plant the seed correctly, the rest of the year is a bust. The week was spent fine-tuning the openers, gauge wheels, row cleaners, and seed meters. We hope to have the planter rolling through the fields on the first of April!

Maintenance of equipment and trucks are everyday tasks when preparing for Spring. Shop clean-up has been a major priority for us lately. Now instead of "working on junk," we're throwing junk away. Sometimes cleaning up means getting a bulldozer stuck. We renovated office space at the farm to help with the business aspect of our operation. The office is not completed, but it's a start! Life on the farm is continuously changing, and we're just trying to figure it out. Follow along for more farming updates!